﻿Farwell: Michigan Species of Polygonatum 251 



The Michigan species naturally fall into two groups — one 

 containing low, slender plants having pubescent chartaceous 

 foliage and small flowers with slender filaments; and the other 

 containing robust plants having glabrous, membranaceous leaves 

 and large flowers with large, stout filaments. Both are to be 

 placed under Baker's section Alternifolia. The first group 

 may be known as the Puhescentes and the second, as the Glahrata. 

 Under the Puhescentes three species have been described, P. 

 puhescens, P. cuneatum, and P. boreale. In all these forms the 

 filaments are papillate. Dr. Greene describes the peduncles of 

 P. boreale as filiform and flexuous; this can scarcely be said of 

 the specimens that have come under the author's observation, 

 except as to the two or three uppermost, the others being too 

 stout, compressed, and channelled to be called filiform; otherwise 

 the specimens agree with Dr. Greene's descriptions. There is 

 another form with the perianth pale green throughout or with the 

 lobes just noticeably of a darker green than the tube. 



In the Glahrata seven species have been described, P. hiflorum, 

 P. hirtum, P. canaliculatum, P. parviflorum, P.commutatum (all orig- 

 inally as species of Convallaria) , P. giganteum, and P. virginicum; 

 two others have been referred to the European P. latifolium and 

 P. multiflorum, making nine in all. These species will fall into 

 two series, one with yellowish white flowers and relatively narrow 

 leaves and the other with greenish flowers and relatively broad 

 leaves. Several forms can readily be recognized ; also one form with 

 ancipital stems has been found, i. e., in cross-section the oudine 

 is elliptical. P. commutatum and P. giganteum are but varying 

 forms of P. canaliculatum and may better be considered as varieties 

 of it. P. virginicum appears to be a broad-leaved form of P. 

 hiflorum. In Michigan another form is found which is analogous 

 to P. canaliculatum but the flowers are yellowish. In this group 

 it would be natural to look for P. parviflorum Dietr. {Convallaria 

 parviflora Poir.). Such descriptions (not the original) of this 

 species which the author has seen point unmistakably to some 

 species of the Glahrata notwithstanding it is said to have flowers of 

 the size of those of the Puhescentes. Probably the description was 

 drawn from an immature dried plant and the flowers had not yet 

 opened at the time of collection. Oftentimes the pressure exerted 



